A process has already been proposed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,780,115 and 3,869,253 for nitrating a saturated hydrocarbon, such as propane, particularly in the presence of oxygen, introduced in the form of air, wherein the nitration is conducted under a pressure between 8 and 14 bars, the reactant gases being separately preheated under reaction pressure and introduced at between 150.degree. and 330.degree. C. to a reaction zone, the gaseous effluents coming from the nitration zone being subjected to a quenching or rapid cooling. This nitration process leads to an orientation of final products toward nitropropanes with a very clear predominance of 2-nitropropane.
One of the industrial problems resides in the search for means making possible nitration operations to obtain a suitable percentage of different nitroparaffins to meet market requirements. It has now been found that 2-nitropropane does not at present represent the most worthwhile nitroparaffin from the point of view of the industry's need.
Further, an effort is being made to optimize the profitability of nitration of hydrocarbons, particularly in already existing installations, and by the use of the cheapest materials available on the market.